Larger enterprises often employ fairly complex print shop architectures to address their various printing needs. For example, members of an organization may use local printers for simple desktop publishing (e.g., letters, memorandums, pictures, etc.). However, when the organization requires more sophisticated and/or larger volume printing, the organization may employ a print shop architecture comprising a number of higher-end printers (e.g., multifunction printers, production printing systems, etc.) that are capable of providing more functionality and/or print volume.
These print shop architectures are typically managed by a print server that is operable to receive print jobs from a plurality of clients via host system devices (e.g., networked computer systems, mobile devices, etc.). The seamless integration of the printers in such an environment, however, is often difficult to implement. For example, printers and their specific capabilities may not be fully recognized by individual client devices. The print server is configured to manage the hardware and software assets of the printers in the print shop architecture such that a user can easily identify a particular printer. In this centralized print environment, system administrators and other information technology personnel can also access and control the features of the printers.
Typically, the print server is configured with a plurality of features and protocols of the various printers controlled by the print server. For example, each printer managed by the print server may have its own print capabilities (e.g., double-sided printing, stapling, collation, etc.) and/or print protocols (Hot Folder, Job Definition Format or “JDF”, Job Messaging Format or “JMF”, line printer or “LPR”), that differ from other printers in the print shop architecture. Before such centralized management, a client device would install a printer driver that included the printing capabilities of the printer. The printer driver also establishes the print protocol for the client device to communicate with and control the printer. The print server maintains the printer drivers for the physical printer.
The print server presents this functionality to the client device such that a user may print a document to a particular physical printer. For example, when a user wishes to print a document to a particular physical printer, the user may communicate with the print server to access that physical printer. The client may then generate a print job using the various system capabilities that are presented by the print server. The client may then transfer the print job to the print server in a print datastream that includes the print job and a job ticket associated with the print job. For example, the print job may include one or more documents for printing while the job ticket provides various printing parameters that are used by the physical printer to print the print job. While some of these parameters may be incorporated within the print job itself, the job ticket may provide verification that a particular print job is printed properly. The print job and the job ticket are configured in a print datastream using a print protocol of the physical printer to which the print job is being sent. Examples of print datastreams include Portable Document Format (PDF), Mixed Object: Document Content Architecture (MO:DCA), Advanced Function Printing (AFP).
In some instances, a particular print datastream type allows a user to leave certain values missing within the job ticket. The printer in such a case simply inserts a null value in the job ticket and processes the print job without the value. A problem, however, exists when a print datastream does not allow missing values and the job ticket has a field with a missing value for a printing parameter. In such as case, the print shop architecture may attempt to process the print data stream providing variable interpretations of the missing value along the way to the physical printer. These variable interpretations of missing values may halt or slow printing at the physical printer until they can be resolved.